badgamefandomcom-20200214-history
The Icy Marches
Far northeast of the lands most frequently braved by cartographers, bordering Mangralia, the Icy Marches are a massive region of permafrost-scarred lands. Arable land is rare, and most of the city-states that occupy this region are either isolationist or warring. The borders of each city-state's territory are vague, due to the dangers of venturing too far from any settlement. Reality is weak in much of the wilderness, and planar invaders such as Frostknaves - unbound spirits from the Elemental Plane of Ice, demons, a host of other extraterrestrial threats, and the goblins who frequently seek their patronage, threaten all who wander. Vampires are also known to establish seats of power here. Goverance The biggest territory by a huge margin is Krusilov, an expanse covering the northern coast completely. It is ruled over by Tsarina Kvelna Kvelmazov, descendant of a matrilineal line of royal warlocks. As her family has always done, she has refined her arts to a great degree, and conducts her rituals to protect her every vassal. The ruling class occupy the city-state of Bistury , in which the Palace of Mirrors sits. The ancestral home of the Tsarinas, The Palace of Mirrors features a seemingly endless series of passageways covered in its eponymous enchanted mirrors. These allow a degree of organized long range communication not typically seen in The World, and are the primary reason for Krusilov's unification. Would-be foreign invaders from the tiefling state of Helenstadt and the high elven kingdom of Viernaco have found themselves occupying empty cities bereft of food or valuables, and harried by guerillas and shock troopers, making retreat a bloody ordeal. The Palace can serve other functions as well. Prisoners are thrown into mirrors that jail them in pocket dimensions, or exile them to hell worlds. Colledges of eldritch magic and distant covens talk to each other through the Palace. All of these services are well compensated, and contribute to the royal family's infamous wealth. Population Most of The Icy March's settlements are human. Dwarfs and gnomes are known to dwell there, but they typically don't mix with humans, or even with other colonies of the same race. One exception is a clan of gnomish artificers in Bistury who mass produce Mangralian Thunder Wands, which are issued to the halberdiers of the royal guard. Devas sometimes hold a role in a city church, or the Library of Bistury. Tieflings, elves, eladrin, and other exotic races, are often persecuted. Those that still choose to live in the Icy Marches congregate in gypsy clans. Tieflings are especially hated, as their kind was responsible for the construction of The Tesseract, which brought about much of the region's extraplanar instability (which might have existed in potentia anyway). Many humans have trace amounts of orc blood. Their assimilation into humanity was so complete that pure orcs in the Icy Marches are rare. They are sometimes seen with roving Goblins or as honor guards for a Frostknave warlord. The land of Tuktuk, on the Icy March's eastern shores, is occupied by tribes of jovial halflings, who tend to be even more rotund than their kin from more temperate climes. They are whalers, fishermen, and seal hunters, who's hillside homes can hardly be seen for all the snow covering them. Dungeons Arcanova The largest prison dimension linked to by the Palace of Mirrors, Arcanova is a colony in its own right. It occupying a space of infinite rock and the occasional influx of breathable atmosphere. Prisoners are made to create new blocks by tunneling into caverns, reinforcing their ceilings, smoothing the ground, and digging out their living spaces. A mysterious race akin to both dwarves and earth elementals serve as guards. They quell riots, prevent escapes and invasions (but never absolutely), and perform the occasional execution when an example is necessary. Their expertise is also used to inspect for unsafe, poorly engineered work by the prisoner diggers. They supposedly can nominate a prisoner for exoneration, but it has never been seen to happen. Some blocks are mostly autonomous. Prisoners expand their homes, tend fungal gardens, start families, and are even allowed to create refineries and forges to produce tools with. The guards will exchange useful ingots for outside resources. Other blocks, however, house terrible threats. Sometimes powerful creatures from other planes find their way in, are captured in the Icy Marches, or are imprisoned there through some dark bargian made by the royal family with a Primordial or Supernal. Blocks are sometimes demilitarized as well. One of the more crazed Tsarinas decided to thrown an entire goblin clan inside as an example to others. They ran amok, expertly harassing the guards, stole weapons from them, and dug secret tunnels all over. Although the main entrance to the section intended to house them has been sealed, they still get everywhere. The Tesseract The Tesseract was a Tiefling wizard stronghold, in which a construct which would theoretically allow for limitless magical energy drawn from the infinite cosmos. Whether due to an engineering flaw, a quantum butterfly in the works, or simply a weakness in reality that already existed, rifts were torn open all over the Marches. Much of the land was permanently frozen, and the doorways for extraplanar invasion were opened. Beings were also allowed to escape into The World from the Lady of Pain's Maze, though most have been duly re-imprisoned in Arcanova. It is unknown where exactly The Tesseract now occupies in the physical space of The World, but inquisitive adventurers may endeavor to find out. The castle, once a modest example of Tiefling architecture, has now been stretched and reshaped into a tenebrous, non-Euclidean sprawl. Ramparts have become bridges and towers have become islands floating across the ether, connecting worlds. Geists, horrors, and valuable treasures await any mortal who might dare to explore it. Lord Volzmir's Estate Even among vampires, Volzmir's castle is considered a threatening, omenous presence. Legends state many things; that it is a hellborne mimic taking the shape of a keep, that it is made up of pieces of The Tesseract, that it once was an entire distrct of Sigil that was decimated and sent to The Maze, or a mixture of many such myths. Attempts to map it by intrepid explorers produce varied results, some show laboratories of demonologists, some show pious chapels twisted to the service of dark gods, deep stairways leading to deserted dwarven ruins, or even into Baator, and a massive clock tower who's cogs turn in time with those of Mechanus. Lord Volzmir may be more than a vampire, which are hard to kill as it is. Category:regions Category:The Icy Marches